The industry observers have voted on allowing unlimited new domain names based on various themes like company brands or entertainment and political causes.

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers announced this Monday at a meeting in Singapore that any group able to afford paying $185,000 for a new domain name will get new website suffix containing almost any word in any language, even in hieroglyphic symbols.

They called the move “a start of a whole new phase for the web”, and decided that unless there’s a sound reason to restrain innovation, it can run free. This decision culminates 6 years of negotiations, becoming the biggest change to the Internet domain name system since suffix “.com” appeared 26 years ago. Actually, the expansion of domain names’ suffixes has largely been restrained due to concerns on infringing trademarks and copyrights.

It is expected that high-profile entertainment and financial companies will be first hurrying to apply for their own domain names, in attempt to protect their brands. Indeed, new system will allow giants to control their brands better – only imagine .apple or .ipad websites, taking users right to Apple’s products! At the same time, it is supposed to help alleviate the overlap of names in “.com” suffix, currently having close to 100 million websites registered.

Today there are 290 country suffixes, like “.ru” for Russia and “.ua” for Ukraine, but these suffixes are usually limited to groups or people residing in those countries. Meanwhile, there are 22 open names, including recent additions like “.tel”, reserved for telecommunications. But with the latest decision, experts are expecting around 1,000 new domain names to appear, mostly designed specifically for companies and products. However, cities and generic names like .bank or .hotel are also possible. Moreover, there are already groups forming to occupy “.sport” for sporting websites, and even groups looking forward to the right to own an “.eco” suffix.

Perhaps, the domain names will be auctioned off – for example, if many parties have legitimate claims. But industry observers tend to think that companies will instead strike deals among themselves to own a domain name. The matter is that the application process is not that simple, with the fee being $185,000, while the guidebook is 360 pages.